“Following an inspection performed after the collapse of Plasco building in January 2017, a total of 330,000 unsafe buildings were identified in Tehran, of which only 220 buildings have ensured occupant safety. Close to 3,200 buildings are now in the process of improving their safety and the remaining 30,000 have failed to implement any safety measure,” Mohsen Hashemi was also quoted as saying by Tasnim News Agency.
Plasco, a 17-story high-rise shopping center, was engulfed in flames and within minutes disintegrated like a house of cards, killing 26 people, including 16 firefighters, and wounding 230 others.
Unauthorized and non-standard wiring was identified as the main cause of the disaster. Non-compliance with safety standards in the lighting, ventilation, heating and warning systems, and lack of sufficient firefighting equipment in the building, were reported as other causes that brought down the tower built half a century ago.
Last week, an explosion from a gas leak in a medical clinic in northern Tehran killed yet another 19 people. In a TV interview, Tehran fire department spokesman, Jalal Maleki, said the explosion occurred when gas canisters caught fire in the clinic’s basement.
“More than 4,000 schools will be inspected in summer to evaluate the seismic safety of their buildings,” Farnam Khojastehfar, an official with the Central Taskforce of Technical Inspection of Buildings, said in May.
Four years into the inception of this taskforce, about 30% of government buildings have received technical inspection flags, he was quoted as saying by IRNA, adding that the figure is expected to rise to 40% by March 2021.
Noting that according to statistics released by Tehran Fire Department, more than 200 building complexes have high-risk safety hazards, Khojastehfar said, “Our on-site inspection is aimed at verifying compliance with technical specifications, including the buildings’ electricity and mechanical facilities, their architecture and façade, as well as their structures.”